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IMO It makes no sense delaying updates in a preview/ insider ring, it’s what people opted in for..beta testing!
OTOH this could well be a trial which may be removed completely.
As for the 35 day grace period/ pause once RTM, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout; But there is no joy in Mudville- mighty Casey has struck out.

It appears that for complete clarity I should have said, “In effect…”, but I was hoping that the “every month” would have been a hint as we’re discussing an unreleased feature here (as far as Home users are concerned).

If I’m not mistaken (and I very well could be), Pause is useless because…. At the end of the “pause” period, what you get is updated, whether you like it or not. Automatic updates – just “pause”-period days later.

A key question about the “Pause” functionality.. how does it apply to current updates in the queue?

Is this a case of “I’m going to wait and not download any updates for 7 days”, or is it going to say “I’m going to download everything, and then not install for 7 days”?

The first is great to avoid potentially bad patches, but the second could potentially have you install broken updates even if they’ve already been pulled from release in that 7 day period.

Either way, now I can’t shake the image of hitting the “Pause” button, and immediately getting a phone call with a creepy voice saying “Sevennn daaayyyssss…”

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Disclaimer, we are talking about a feature that’s not yet final, is on Insider builds only, and may or may not change or be yanked. Given the nature of Insider builds, the seven day pause may be increased on general release. Or not.

Here’s the way it’s supposed to work.

When you hit pause (for seven days):

All pending updates that have not yet been installed are stopped.

All released updates that come out during the seven day period are ignored. They are not downloaded, nor presented to you. (Unless you are a seeker . . .)

If you are a seeker, which means you manually click the check for updates button – we think you just might get more than you thought you were asking for – but that’s not been confirmed on the pause feature yet. (I plan to try to test this tomorrow!)

Once the pause expires, on this new model (not to be confused with the old deferral setting in Windows 10 Pro) the system is supposed to do the following:

1) Re-run a live online check for updates – this means that if MS yanked a bad patch from WU during your pause; you won’t see it at all.

2) Install all pending updates found that you have not received since the pause (minus the ones MS yanked, see above.)

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I’ve seen loss of all graphics output when there’s a low-memory condition on that build version, which is sort of nasty… not getting graphics back either even after going back and freeing memory (killing processes) by remote.

I mean, sheesh, I’ve heard Microsoft loves Linux these days, but I could’ve done without this particular failure mode… computer running but no graphics output… especially as it doesn’t look like we got text-mode virtual consoles either.

Would be nice to get a fix for that in this week’s updates. (And the Access file format problem too, but no one cares about Edge much…)

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Normally I use ” check for up dates but let me choose” This time I’ll be setting it to ” Don’t check” because of Microsoft’s insistence on trying to force you to update Silverlight even when you try to hide it. It comes back everyday.

Even when Silverlight has been removed, apparently there is/are trace/s in the computer. There are a dozen or more updates that Windows will attempt to download. If you look at each one offered you will see that the KB numbers are different. Just keep hiding them; once the queue has regressed to the oldest one, they will stop being offered.
Except: I just did a new Updates test, and KB4481252, for the new Japanese calendar eras, was offered. Hid it.

May I ask where we stand on the outstanding January Office updates (KB2553332 – Security office 2010, KB44461623 – Security Outlook 2010, KB44461625 – Security Word 2010, KB4462157 – Update Office 2010 and of course the “unchecked” KB4461614 – Security office 2010. Are some or all safe to install or should I wait? I now have the February updates which are unchecked as well but I know we are still in wait mode for those. Thanks for your advice in advance.

I hid KB4462157 and KB4461614. I installed the rest of Jan 2010 updates. That is not a recommendation, but only what I did personally. I’ll probably pull those two out when MS gets the Japanese calendar thing sorted out (if they are not superceded by then).

None of us really happy about this whole “Pause” situation….. but it’s built this way to avoid machines getting significantly out of date.

Out-of-date machines are the #1 largest contributor to botnets. It’s vanishing rare on machines that are 1-2 weeks behind the bleeding edge of patches, but after 6 weeks or so, you’re really starting to take unnecessary risks.

If you’re really concerned about “your equipment”, then you do need to keep up with the fixes. All the machismo in the world along the lines of “I don’t need updates, I know how to protect myself!” won’t help f an attack uses a novel vector you aren’t watching out for, such as web fonts, an exploit on your ISP-provided router / switching equipment, or DNS hijacking. Attacks take some time to be developed and get into circulation in an automated fashion, but they do get out there eventually.

Is it better to wait always (unless there is something that clearly requires urgent action) until after the third Tuesday following Patch Tuesday, in case off-band patches (such as patches to patches), come out and to give MS time to pull out some buggy ones?

It is best for each individual to follow their own council after consulting the advisors they trust. But if you are seeking to define yet another argument in support of the MS-DEFCON system used here, that is one of the good reasons for waiting, yes. Woody’s own case can be read here: https://www.askwoody.com/ms-defcon-system/

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I have all of my update settings as per recommendation and this morning I noticed that KB4487044 somehow got pushed to my PC and it is now waiting for me to schedule or restart my computer to finalize the patch. Not quite sure why it ran the patch as I have been avoiding hitting the “Update Now” button until the MS-DEFCON status was changed.

A share all of the frustration with fellow Windows users as to the method of updating.

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